Trash Pandas voted nickname for new Madison baseball team

Updated Mar 07, 2019; Posted Sep 05, 2018

Martin Serafin, 11, left, brother Noah Serafin, 9, in Panda costume and dad Ryan Serafin of Madison show their preference before the announcement of the nickname for the new Madison minor league baseball team. (Paul Gattis/pgattis@al.com)

BallCorps Inc., team owners of the minor league baseball team that will begin play in Madison in 2020, announced at a community event Wednesday night at Rocket Republic Brewery in Madison that the team would be known by the monikers that received the most votes in an online name-the-team contest.

So to the minor league baseball industry that has brought you the Hartford Yard Goats and the Omaha Storm Chasers, you may now add Trash Pandas.

The team, which currently exists as the Mobile BayBears, will begin play in Madison in 2020.

Trash Pandas was the overwhelming choice as the nickname and Rocket City was the overwhelming choice as the team identifier, according to the announcement from the team.

The team identified Matthew Higley of Lacey's Spring as the inspiration behind Trash Pandas. He submitted the nickname suggestion during a nomination period earlier this summer.

This is how Higley described his nickname on the nomination form: "Our community is known for engineering, and no creature in our galaxy is as smart, creative, determined and ingenious a problem solver - dedicated to the challenge at hand - as our local raccoons!"

Fans loved it - far more than any other suggestion that the team put on the ballot. In the first round of voting with 10 nicknames, the team said Trash Pandas received 41.4 percent of the vote. With the nominations trimmed to five, Trash Pandas got 44.75 percent of the vote.

ThunderSharks was the runner-up favorite but - at 19.25 percent - received less than half the number of votes collected by Trash Pandas.

As popular as Trash Pandas was, though, voters loved the Rocket City identifier even more. It received 67.4 percent of the vote, the team said, while North Alabama was next with 18.1 percent and Madison - the host city of the Trash Pandas and the city paying $46 million for the stadium - got just 14.5 percent of the vote.

And if you voted or submitted a suggested for the team nickname, you're a part of history. No name-the-team event has ever garnered as participation as the Madison event in which 28,560 nominations and votes were recorded.

The team said that's according to Brandiose, the branding firm hired by the team and Minor League Baseball's premiere branding partner.

So what does a Trash Panda logo look like? Or where can you get a Trash Panda cap or jersey?

Well, you've got another wait in front of you.

The team said it will unveil logo designs at another community event on Oct. 27. This one will be at Dublin Park in Madison and feature a free concert by Huntsville band Dirt Circus as well as a fireworks show. And you'll have a chance to purchase your Trash Panda merchandise.

Meanwhile, the team also announced Wednesday that it will be opening a merchandise store at Bridge Street Town Centre on Nov. 12. The store will be located next to the Apple store, the team said.

And the team will begin taking season ticket deposits at its store on Nov. 17 at $250 per seat.